The Status of Lobbying in Croatia

The positions of lobbying and the lobbyist, well established in developed democratic societies, are far less clear in transitional countries. The aim of this paper is to present the current status of lobbying in Croatia through a discussion of its reputation in the media, citizens’ attitudes and the perceptions of business sector representatives. For that purpose, three groups of research results are presented. (1) In order to characterize the reputation of lobbying in the media, the results of a quantitative content analysis of information published in daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and on Internet portals are given. (2) To understand the attitudes of citizens to lobbying, the views of the young are considered. (3) Finally, to define perceptions of lobbying in the public sector and business, the results of a survey conducted among 50 employees in government institutions and 50 in the enterprise sector are presented and analyzed.     

Russia's Gas Sector: In Need of Liberalization in the Context of the Shale Gas Revolution and Energy Relations with the European Union

Rising gas production from nonconventional deposits in North America and the possibility of growth in the rest of the world pose a serious challenge to Russian energy interests. Although Russia has the largest proven gas reserves and is the number one exporter of fossil fuels, its position as a dominant gas supplier to the European Union (EU) is diminishing. This article examines the main problems of Russia's gas sector in the context of the shale gas revolution and the liberalization of the EU gas market. The article also analyses the perspectives of Russia's energy relations with EU countries and formulates some recommendations for them.     

HUMAN WELL-BEING EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

We examine the effects of income, institutions, and social capital—proxied by the level of corruption and ethnic tensions—on literacy and life expectancy in Africa. Random effects estimates show that income has a robust positive influence. GMM estimates indicate that corruption reduces the effectiveness of institutions in promoting literacy. However, this effect is not monotonic; improvements in the corruption index within the high corruption range reduce the effectiveness of institutions, while continuous improvement within the low corruption range enhances the effectiveness of institutions. Similarly, ethnic tensions reduce the effectiveness of institutions. Based on these findings, we conclude that social capital and institutions can complement each other. ( JEL O11, O17, Z13)     

The Global Extent of the Great Moderation*

In 2008 the US financial crisis spilled over into a number of other economies causing declines in GDP across the world. Yet the decades preceding the current downturn had been a period of unprecedented stability for the US economy. This article examines annual data for 98 countries over the period 1961–2007 and finds that lower GDP growth volatility in the period preceding the current crisis was not confined to the US. It is detected in a number of developed and developing countries, suggesting that a reduction in volatility in this period was a more general phenomenon.     

The Glass Ceiling Puzzle,Legal Institutions,and the Shadow Economy

ABSTRACT

Scholarly studies in economics, sociology, psychology, and management emphasize the low number of women in management as one of the main indicators of gender discrimination in the labor market. This study investigates the differences in the percentage of women in senior management across forty-five countries. The results of the regression analysis show that women are more represented in senior management in developing countries than in so-called “liberal Western democracies.” Women also participate more in senior management in countries in which prejudice and discrimination against women are greater. The study presents empirical evidence for two economic explanations for these puzzling results: the weak functioning of the legal system and the large size of the shadow economy.     

The long-run effect of economic disasters

This article investigates the long-run consequences of economic disasters. The results suggest the negative long-run effect of economic disasters on output growth and the limited empirical importance of the investment channel.     

Deconfounding and Causal Regularisation for Stability and External Validity

We review some recent works on removing hidden confounding and causal regularisation from a unified viewpoint. We describe how simple and user-friendly techniques improve stability, replicability and distributional robustness in heterogeneous data. In this sense, we provide additional thoughts on the issue of concept drift, raised recently by Efron, when the data generating distribution is changing.     

The Effects of Foreign Trade Liberalisation and Financial Flows between Slovenia and the EU after Accession

The new version of the CGE model of the Slovenian economy based on the 1998 SAM was used for simulations of the consequences of further foreign trade liberalisation after 1998 as the outcome of implementation of Free Trade Agreements and the European Agreement, adaptation of the Customs Tariff to the for manufacturing products, adoption of the EU Common External Tariff after the accession of Slovenia to the EU, and estimated transfers between the two budgets. Results obtained show a positive net outcome of Slovenian accession to the EU in the long run. On the other hand, rational behaviour by the government will certainly moderate possible short-run negative effects and improve favourable long-run effects.